Great read, Jim. Nice to see behind the curtain a bit and remember how intense and personal it is for Zimmer. He would never mention it in an interview, but I'd love to know what he thought of Shurmur's interviews with the NYG leading up to the NFCCG. Seems like a messed up policy.

“I enjoy being around the players; I enjoy coaching and teaching and getting into the meeting room,” he said.

The next part came as somewhat of a surprise.

“I hate game day,” Zimmer said. “It’s a grind. A grind. Wins and losses. We get 16 tests a year. If you win eight of them, there’s still a chance you’re fired.”

“We were so dang close [to the Super Bowl],” said Zimmer, referring to the NFC Championship Game loss at Philadelphia eight months ago. “I felt I let people down.”

Zimmer went home to his ranch in Kentucky to unwind. He said it took a couple of weeks to clear his head enough to start thinking about the next season.

“It wasn’t so much we got beat, but the way we played,” said Zimmer, whose No. 1-ranked defense allowed 456 yards and 31 points. “It was just me thinking back, ‘What could I have done better? How could I have prepared us better?’ ”

In hindsight, Zimmer said he thinks the euphoria of beating the Saints on the last play of the game the week before played a role in how the team played in Philadelphia.

And he blames himself for that.

He also talked about the QB decision, saying that "Teddy and Sam" are good players but they need more stability at the position. Regarding Keenum, he asked "do you look at the year or the career?". Clearly, they looked at the latter.

Zimmer thinks DeFilippo “will do a great job”, is still coming to grips with Tony Sparano's death and says he will probably coach "until they kick me out; ’til nobody wants me anymore".

I know that's not the same as reading the whole article but hopefully it gives you a decent idea of it's contents.

Regarding the opener: I liked the win! I thought the Vikes looked pretty rough around the edges, which is not unexpected in week 1. The defense came through with big plays when they needed them and Harrison Smith definitely earned his honor as NFC Defensive Player of the Week. He was outstanding. However, there were too many SF receivers running wide open and the Vikes were lucky a few key passes were dropped or the game might have turned out differently.

I thought the special teams looked solid except for a poor punt late and offensively, the WRs looked sharp and Cousins threw the ball pretty well. He was more elusive than I remembered too. I thought Murray ran the ball better than Cook but the latter did a great job in the passing game. The OL performance was underwhelming and I'd definitely like to see the offense finish stronger. I wanted to see them put that game away in the 4th quarter and they didn't do it.

I think the Vikes will have to play better this week to be 2-0 but 1-0 is obviously a good place to be!

That's probably more info than you wanted. What did you think of the opener?

Similar to your take. For one, I was just excited to see it on my 60" television. So much so that I went ahead and booked Sunday Ticket for the season. I'm no longer the poor lad with vows of asceticism that I once was and life is too short to not follow your bliss.

I loved seeing the boys back in action, especially Harry. I was confused by the TE's getting open. (S)Kittles was making himself look exceptional and gave me bad flashbacks of Ertz and was it Jimmy Graham (NO TE last year who excelled in our play off game). Scary to think that an Achilles heel had been discovered to Zimmer's D. I hope that isn't the case. Now Graham is w/ GB, so they better have a plan to cover him. If Erin is indeed immobile, that should free up Barr from ghosting duties.

I didn't like De Felipo's conservative play calling in the 2nd half at all. I'm left wondering if that approach/ philosophy comes from Zimmer or from Flip. They ran off left guard on seemingly every first down of the second half. I feel like I'm still waiting for the Vikings to develop a killer instinct and step on a foe's throat when they can. Hope they do it this week.

Similar to your take. For one, I was just excited to see it on my 60" television. So much so that I went ahead and booked Sunday Ticket for the season. I'm no longer the poor lad with vows of asceticism that I once was and life is too short to not follow your bliss.

I loved seeing the boys back in action, especially Harry. I was confused by the TE's getting open. (S)Kittles was making himself look exceptional and gave me bad flashbacks of Ertz and was it Jimmy Graham (NO TE last year who excelled in our play off game). Scary to think that an Achilles heel had been discovered to Zimmer's D. I hope that isn't the case.

I think it's been there all along and it's a question of whether teams have the personnel and savvy to exploit it. It's another reason the Vikes need to develop more of the killer instinct you mentioned below on offense.

I didn't like De Felipo's conservative play calling in the 2nd half at all. I'm left wondering if that approach/ philosophy comes from Zimmer or from Flip. They ran off left guard on seemingly every first down of the second half. I feel like I'm still waiting for the Vikings to develop a killer instinct and step on a foe's throat when they can. Hope they do it this week.

I've felt from the start that Zimmer has a conservative, "trust the defense to hold a lead and play not to lose" philosophy so I suspect that comes from him. However, regardless of the source, they need to learn how to close games out on offense.

I think we'll learn quite a bit more about the 2018 Vikes this weekend. Hopefully, they'll finish Sunday 2-0!